Faith, Art, and Love: How Paint on a Brush Reveals Spiritual Depths

Beauty leads to truth and vice versa.

That is what two new murals at St. Lawrence Church in Easton, Kansas, show, thanks to a professor at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.

Benedictine College professor James Patrick Reid taught and lectured for decades in  New York City, at Parsons School of Design, the Fashion Institute of Technology and other notable schools. But now he teaches at the Art Department at Benedictine College.

“Since I specialize in the intersection of art with theology and spirituality, as well as Catholic philosophy, I found it would be an ideal place for me to teach,” Reid told Amy Reinhardt at The Leaven.

“When the interrelations of lines, shapes, colors, space and light are working together in a piece of art, it points to the truths of the Catholic faith,” wrote Reinhardt.

Recent popes have stated the same sentiment in the strongest terms possible.

“Whoever sneers at [beauty’s] name can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love,” said Pope Benedict, quoting Hans Urs Von Balthasar. And St. John Paul II took Dostoevsky’s words as his own, saying “Beauty will save the world!”

Reid learned the connection of truth and beauty through a life committed to art.

“As far back as I can remember, I’ve loved to draw and paint,” Reid told her — and from elementary school the master artists from the Renaissance and Baroque period. For him, the search for beauty became a search for truth.

“When I was a freshman in high school, I experienced a spiritual awakening, which came about largely because of my interest in art,” he is quoted saying.

The William Holman Hunt 19th century painting “The Light of the World” (right) led him to Scripture, where he read Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me.”

“When I read that, I had an experience that brought me much deeper into the spiritual life,” Reid told Reinhardt. “I thought, ‘If God used art to call me into a deeper relationship, perhaps he could use the talent he’s given me to reach others.’”

Reinhardt’s story describes how the two new 9-feet tall paintings, of two key points in the life of the deacon St. Lawrence, came about from what Reid calls a “particular grace of inspiration.”

Father Bill McEvoy, pastor of St. Lawrence Church, saw in the paintings the connection Reid describes in his discussion of the work of an artist.

“When I saw his religious pieces, I was deeply impressed,” Father McEvoy told The Leaven. “Faith comes through every stroke of his paintbrush. It doesn’t just look beautiful; it touches your soul.”

Read the full story about the Easton works here.

By Editorial Staff